Seven year overview (2007-2013) of ethical transgressions by registered healthcare professionals in South Africa
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Date
2016
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AOSIS
Abstract
A move has taken place internationally in the delivery and "consumption" of health care
where if clients and patients (health care consumers) hold the opinion that the health care
professionals/providers' behaviour has had a negative effect, impact or outcome on them,
they may lodge a complaint with the relevant health professional regulatory body. Ethical
transgressions of health care providers can generally be clustered into the following three
categories: a) Competence and conduct with clients (e.g. abandonment, sexual intimacies,
dishonesty, disclosure of information); b) Business practices (e.g. billing, reports, documentation);
and c) Professional practice (e.g. referral upon termination, obtaining appropriate
potential employment opportunities, nonprofessional relationships).
The primary objective of this study was to analyse the ethical transgressions of registered
members of the twelve professional boards in the Health Professions Council of
South Africa (HPCSA) in the period 2007 to 2013. A mixed methods approach was followed
in this study which specifically focused on a historical research approach.
The results indicate that the boards with the highest number of transgressions per the
registered practitioners were firstly the Medical and Dental practitioners, closely followed
by the Optometry and Dispensing Opticians Board. The predominantly complaint made
against members of both these boards was for fraudulent conduct (collectively totalling to
85% of all fraudulent cases during the period) and included actions such as charging for
non-rendered services, issuing false statements and submitting fraudulent medical aid
claims.
Cognisance needs to be taken that the South African public will increasingly demand
better services and that since they are being better informed via the media of their rights
and have access to a broader database of knowledge (rightly or wrongly so the internet)
practitioners' opinions will not necessarily be accepted outright and that they (the public)
will challenge it accordingly. This raises the concern that practitioners need to take on the
responsibility to communicate with their patients/clients in order to educate them and
keep them informed.
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Keywords
Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA), Ethics, South Africa, Healthcare professionals
Citation
Nortje, N. and Hoffamann, W. (2016). Seven year overview (2007-2013) of ethical transgressions by registered healthcare professionals in South Africa. Health SA Gesondheid, 21: 46-53